I didn't actually go to the football game because it was on Saturday, but you cannot live in Ann Arbor without being keenly aware that a football game is taking place. The traffic begins two days before as 100,000 people pile into the college town to root for their team, which in this case was Michigan State - one of the top ten. Of course, there were team colors (blue & yellow for University of Michigan and green for Michigan State) all over town, on students, waving from fraternity and sorrority houses, on cars, it was just rah, rah, rah!
Beer pong was set up on every porch in town and the fashion of the moment was an oversized team t-shirt, used as a sundress, sleeves tied over the boobs to um...hold the banner proud. The kettle drums and marching band noise started hours before kickoff, as the soundchecks were done.
Then came kickoff and an eerie silence fell over Ann Arbor. The sound of cheering was amplified from the stadium and radios, televisions and computers were all tuned in to the big game.
But the kicker (pardon the pun) was the moment the game was over, when horns began to blare and hordes - and I do mean THRONGS of people started pouring onto the streets, staggering and speaking loudly. New Year's eve at Times Square ain't got nothing in terms of volume and quality of the drunken masses, compared to Ann Arbor, Michigan post-game. It really didn't matter who won and who lost - the losers (U of M) drowned their sorrow in kegs and bottles, and the winners (Michigan State) partied hearty. There were driving drunks, walking drunks, male and female drunks, staggering on clunky heels, banners waving, and little rubber seat mats in hand.
"Stop that," one "green" girl said to another. "You are behaving totally inappropriate! Don't pull up my dress when you KNOW I'm wearing a thong!"
"Go green!" a drooling male observer leered.
And they partied on and gridlocked the small college town all night long. So how did I like my first football game. Let's just say, I'm homesick for NY where throngs of people on the streets mean business, and the sober hordes outnumber the drunks. Delta? I'm ready to come home now.
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